Food insecurity: special considerations for women.

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food insecurity is the converse state, is often associated with poverty and low income, and has important implications for the health and nutrition of individuals. Given their contribution to food production and preparation, their role in society as child bearers and caregivers, the increasing number of female-headed households worldwide, and their disproportionately poor economic status, women need special consideration in discussions of food insecurity and its effect on health, nutrition, and behavior.

HIV-free survival and morbidity among formula-fed infants in a prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV program in rural Haiti.

Background: Partners In Health (PIH) works with the Ministry of Health to provide comprehensive health services in Haiti. Between 1994 and 2009, PIH recommended exclusive formula feeding in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV program and provided support to implement this strategy. We conducted this study to assess HIV-free survival and prevalence of diarrhea and malnutrition among infants in our PMTCT program in rural Haiti where exclusive formula feeding was supported.

Task-shifting in HIV care: a case study of nurse-centered community-based care in Rural Haiti.

Introduction: At least 36 countries are suffering from severe shortages of healthcare workers and this crisis of human resources in developing countries is a major obstacle to scale-up of HIV care. We performed a case study to evaluate a health service delivery model where a task-shifting approach to HIV care had been undertaken with tasks shifted from doctors to nurses and community health workers in rural Haiti.

Methods: Data were collected using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods at three clinics in rural Haiti.

Human rights assessment in Parc Jean Marie Vincent, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Months after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, over one million remain homeless and living in spontaneous internally displaced person (IDP) camps. Billions of dollars from aid organizations and government agencies have been pledged toward the relief effort, yet many basic human needs, including food, shelter, and sanitation, continue to be unmet.

South-south collaboration in scale-up of HIV care: building human capacity for care.

Objectives: South-south collaborations in building human resource capacity have been inadequately emphasized globally despite the growing experience among resource-poor countries in scaling up HIV care and the funding to implement programmes. This paper aims to describe one such successful collaboration, in which a model of HIV care was developed in Haiti, adapted and expanded to Lesotho, and allowed the effective scale-up of HIV and other treatment services in a rural African setting.

Methods: Institutional experiences and lessons learned over a 10-year period in Haiti and a 3-year period in Lesotho are discussed.

HIV/AIDS, undernutrition, and food insecurity.

Despite tremendous advances in care for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and increased funding for treatment, morbidity and mortality due to HIV/AIDS in developing countries remains unacceptably high. A major contributing factor is that >800 million people remain chronically undernourished globally, and the HIV epidemic largely overlaps with populations already experiencing low diet quality and quantity. Here, we present an updated review of the relationship between HIV infection, nutritional deficiencies, and food insecurity and consider efforts to interrupt this cycle at a programmatic level.

Activation of cAMP-guanine exchange factor confers PKA-independent protection from hepatocyte apoptosis.

cAMP has previously been shown to promote cell survival in a variety of cell types, but the downstream signaling pathway(s) of this antiapoptotic effect is unclear. Thus the role of cAMP signaling through PKA and cAMP-regulated guanine nucleotide exchange factors (cAMP-GEFs) in cAMP's antiapoptotic action was investigated in the present study. cAMP's protective effect against bile acid-, Fas ligand-, and TNF-alpha-induced apoptosis in rat hepatocytes was largely unaffected by the selective PKA inhibitor, Rp-8-(4-chlorophenylthio)-cAMP (Rp-cAMP).